This past weekend I read a very interesting little book that explained the term autosuggestion and how we use it in our daily lives, either consciously or unconsciously. The book also explained how when we use it unconsciously, it normally has a negative effect on our lives. I thought about this concept for a moment. I do believe in the the idea of autosuggestion, and have employed the skills necessary to make it work for me in several areas. I found it to be a very positive experience. But this particular book made the suggestion that the imagination always overpowers the will. It gave very explicit examples that could prove it to be true. So I tested this theory with my daughter, using one of the examples from the document.
I went outside and grabbed a 2x4 from my storage room. The board was just big enough for her feet to navigate across, one in front of the other. I layed the plank on the ground and asked her to walk across it. She did so with ease, never hesitating. She was successful, each and every single time that she took the walk (a total of 10 times). Next, I rested each end of the board on the seats of two chairs. This raised the board about three feet off the ground. I asked my daughter to step up and complete the walk. She immediately told me that she couldn't walk across the board and did not attempt it at first.
When I asked her about her reservation, she explained to me that she was not coordinated enough to walk the board in a tight rope fashion, and that she knew she would fall. I told her to try for me anyway and she did. She fell almost immediately. Afterward she says to me, "See mom, I told you that I couldn't do it." And asked her why she felt that way- to which she responded, "Well mom I am afraid of falling from a big building- I don't like heights!" She continued to tell me that she couldn't look down out of windows when she had to be in tall buildings.
I explained to her that she wasn't in a tall building, but a mere three feet off the gorund. I explained to her that if she felt herself feeling as if she were going to fall, she could turn it into an opportunity to jump off the board and land on her feet, since the ground was so close...and that she could even look down to reassure herself. I asked her to reattempt her walk, and of course, for her mom she obliged. She mounted herself on the board very slowly. She raised her arms to shoulder length on either side of her body, and slowly moved across the plank. She had accomplished the feat! She was very happy herself as well that she had done it and proceeded to move a little faster across the board to reach the end on which I was standing. She tried several more times going steadily a little faster each time until she had marched back and forth across the board 12 times!
In my daughter's mind, she could always walk the plank when it was on the floor- as there was really no danger in her mind of getting hurt. Afterall, she is used to walking on the floor and the plank had nowhere to fall to, as it was positioned on the floor. But in order to get across the same plank while it was positioned on the seats of two chairs took some effort. She had to imagine and suggest to herself that she could jump 3 feet to the ground if for some reason the plank gave way to the possibility of her crashing.
This is the same for everyone else too. We like to take big rides at amusement parts so that we can feel the rush (and the fear) that goes along with soaring up high in the sky and extremely rapid speeds. Some of us can do this because we imagine that the operators of these rides know what to do to keep us safe. The same is the case with airplanes. Because we imagine them to be safe, our will is allowed to push us towards getting on the ride or inside the plane. When we imagine that something could potentially be dangerous (even when it seems like fun), the image of danger overpowers the will, and many of us forego the fun in order to be safe. When we don't take good chances on ourselves for fear of the unknown, while it could keep us safe, we could also miss out a huge blessing. Imagination, when used properly, can will us to take a leap of faith that changes our lives for the better, forever. On the flip side, if we always ignore that urge that tells us to "go for it", the will is useless- and we will find ourselves years from now...stuck in the very place that we desired not to be.
The book I read was called Self Mastery through Conscious Autosuggestion by Emile Coue. Click the link to read for yourself.
